Video: Mario Kart 8 Isn't The Only New Mario Kart Game You Can Play In 2014

There once was a time when the latest arcade hits were ported to home consoles with great fanfare, but these days most coin-ops are left in their natural habitat. That's been the case with the Mario Kart Arcade GP series, produced in collaboration between Nintendo and Bandai Namco Games.

It's a shame, because Mario Kart Arcade GP DX — the latest instalment in the line — is looking pretty special, as you can see from the attract sequence below. Not only does it showcase the usual combat racing action, but you can also combine your powers with another player to create a super-powerful "Fusion Kart" capable of firing shells at rival drivers.

The game is hitting western arcades this year, and may even be installed in a venue near you already. Have you played it? Do you think Nintendo and Bandai Namco should port the game — or the entire series — to home consoles? Share your thoughts by posting a comment below.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

They actually have these in TWO locations in Paignton, Devon. One of them is a 4-seater setup. I was blown away, given the most recent other machine in teh town is a Race Driver GRID Arcade from three or four years ago.

The game is decent fun but there's not much of a draw to pay £1 a race when I've got a very similar - and better looking, in places - game sitting at home that I can play for as long as I want.

I played a Mario kart arcade game for the first time this summer. Dunno which one it was, but the handling was awful, and the graphics excruciatingly bad. I put a quid in, played one track, won, and then was asked to put another quid in to continue!

My older son and I both played it at Dave & Busters. I honestly think Mario Kart 8 is the better game by a mile. While it's cool to see and play this in the arcade, I would rather play my Wii U and Mario Kart 8 @ home. We waited in line to play it and it reminded me of other arcade racers but with Mario. It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't Mario Kart.

My wife and I got to play it in Springdale, Ohio at Dave and Busters while we were on a trip to Cincinnati this May (a few weeks before MK8 came out which we have played the crud out of) and we loved it. We played every track at least once together. If I was a rich man I would have bought one of my own no doubt. Here's a few of our pictures from it : http://imgur.com/a/6bnnE

As a side note, no it's not as good as Mario Kart 8, but it was a lot of fun as an arcade racer. Having played the original Mario kart GP arcade at Disney World back in 2012, I can say this one is better in several different ways.

I think this looks even better than MK8! It has brighter colours and looks less "realistic". If they'd bring this to the Wii U I'd consider buying it. But nobody can expect that. The game runs on a custom Windows 8 platform, not Nintendo hardware like the the earlier Mario Kart Arcade games. So it's not trivial to convert it like F-Zero AX > GX. Still, Nintendo seems to be more crowd pleasing recently.

There's a first Mario Kart arcade game (whatever it was called) in Disneyland (California) and it was awesome, but even while I live in LA and there are a handful of arcade I can go to, none of them ever have this. Even the other versions

There's a Mario Kart arcade game at a cinema near me. Had fun playing it, though they're probably not going to upgrade to a newer one soon. The Peach Castle course looks cool.

"Not only does it showcase the usual combat racing action, but you can also combine your powers with another player to create a super-powerful "Fusion Kart" capable of firing shells at rival drivers."
Crash: Tag Team Racing, anyone?

Well looks like the Fusion is quite a swell surprise though it has been done before in Crash Tag Team Racing, though I haven't played it yet. Arcades are pretty much dead around where I live so I doubt I'll ever play this like the other sequels. I played the original and it charged me 4 coins to continue the race in the cup even though I got 1st place. These games are amazing but they charge so much since its a strong license and that's the weakpoint to these arcade games.

I would absolutely support porting these games to home console, at least the first few especially since the gamepad camera would work perfect for the head shots. My guess as to why they haven't is it would be hard to justify shelling out several thousand dollars for an arcade game when you can play it at home for much less, and that is bad business.

Then again that didn't stop Pac-Man, Galaga and nearly every other 80's arcade game being ported perfect by the end of the decade.

@Jesson125 How soon do they arrive? I think the one in Concord (NC) never had the old Mario Kart Arcade, but one in Cary (also NC, closer to me) did. I wonder how long it would take until either one has the new one?

If Virtual Console Arcade from the Wii Shop is ported to the eShop, ALL OF THESE SHOULD BE IN IT because they are arcade games, same as the other ones they did in that section.

I really want to try that freaking fusion thing, and the graphics don't look overly detailed, but remind me of the retro days so this is awesome. I'd love to play all of these on the Wii U, cause Mario Kart is known for its good music and stages and having THREE WHOLE games to put on my Wii U would be fantastic, I wouldn't even care if it took up a lot more gigs than usual just cause its Mario Kart and cause all the courses are brand new, I'd gladly pay even $10 for each game, maybe a little higher but if so I'd probably buy them not all at once if that were the case.